


Reflections

by Orlha



Category: Naruto
Genre: Akatsuki Kakashi, Akatsuki Minato, Akatsuki Naruto, Gen, Good Uchiha Obito, Hokage Orochimaru (Naruto), Konoha is a terrible village to live in, Minato and Kakashi defects, Missing-Nin Hatake Kakashi, Namikaze Minato Lives, Nohara Rin Lives, Protective Hatake Kakashi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2019-10-28 05:41:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17781629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orlha/pseuds/Orlha
Summary: In another world, Minato is late and Rin dies. In this world, Minato rescues Rin and finds Obito alive.In another world, Kushina is too weak to seal the kyuubi leaving Minato to seal it. In this world, Kushina manages to seal the Kyuubi into baby Naruto leaving Minato alive.In another world, Minato loves Konoha. In this world, Minato realises that the Konoha he loves is a facade.





	1. Chapter 1

Kakashi wakes in the middle of the night, something had triggered his seals - no, not triggered. Something was in his room but hadn’t triggered his seals. He forces his body to be relaxed, channels minute chakra into his ears. The side of his bed dips and he smells the scent of sunshine, lazy afternoons and ink.

“Sensei?” He blinks blearily at the blond, taking in his haggard look. Kakashi pushes onto an elbow. Wrapped in a blanket, almost hidden in Minato’s coat is Naruto, sleeping peacefully.

Minato palms his face. Kakashi can see the dark circles beneath his eyes, and smell the rank stench of alcohol. Minato doesn’t reply and Kakashi doesn’t push. He knows what’s it’s like to be pushed for an answer that he isn’t ready to give.

Instead, he gets up and cross his tiny apartment where his kitchenette is and busies himself with making tea. The chair at his dining table draws a screech in the silence and he hears Minato sit heavily.

“Do you like Konoha?” Minato asks eventually.

That’s a question Kakashi asks himself every day. He hasn’t loved Konoha since he was six. The people, the ‘friends’. He pulls himself away from that line of thought, stirring the leaves in the pot. The kettle flicks itself off, indicating the water is ready and Kakashi pours the water into the pot that Obito bought for him.

How Obito retained his loyalty and love for Konoha after the way everyone treated him, baffles Kakashi to no end. Did Obito not know what they did to Rin? How they locked away under the excuse of unstable seal?

Kakashi pulls out his only two cups and fills them. Sliding into the opposite chair, he sets the cup in front of Minato.

“Do you?” Minato asks again. He looks gently at Naruto, rubbing a thumb over his face.

Kakashi doesn’t answer. There isn’t an answer that is acceptable to give. He can never forget the chains that Rin has to wear when she leaves her room, or how the walls of her room are plastered with fuinjutsu. Death would be kinder for her, Kakashi knows this with certainty.

“I’m leaving,” Minato tells him and Kakashi yanks his eye from the edge of the cup to Minato’s blue eyes.

“ _Defecting,_ ” he whispers and cups his eyes. “I can’t stay, Kakashi-kun. I _can’t._ ”

If they could do that to Rin, what’s stopping them doing the same to Naruto? Kakashi can only imagine the things they want to do to their _weapon_ would be so much more and the conditioning Danzo might suggest.

It sickens him.

“Now?” Kakashi asks, his jaw shaking from the words he wants to say but can’t.

Take me, I’m coming with you, don’t leave me.

His nails press tiny crescents into his palm as he forces himself not to reach out. If Minato wants to leave for Naruto’s well-being then he should go.

“Kakashi-kun…” Minato’s hand grabs his. “Come with me.”

To leave and never come back? Come back to what? To his lonely, dark apartment? To his friends, where there is only Rin locked up behind three squads of Anbu and Obito? He can’t even stand the way his stomach twists when he sees Obito and his scarred face. How could Obito forgive him for leaving him under that rock? He knows he can’t even forgive himself and he’s not even the victim.

“Okay.”

He stands, striding quickly to his bed and pulls his emergency pack from under the bed. There aren’t many things Kakashi will miss in Konoha. Gai, Genma. He seals the photos into his storage scroll and slides it into a pocket on his pack.

His father’s tanto glimmers on the wall as he stalks past it and Kakashi stops. He hated how his father left him, hated how he wasn’t strong enough, hated how the people of Konoha had pushed him into suicide.

_And still he loved him._

Kakashi lifts the tanto from its mount with quiet reverence, hand fisting it slowly.

The people of Konoha took his father’s honor from him. He’ll restore it.

Minato rises as Kakashi approaches him.

“Ready?” Minato asks. There’s no pack on Minato, not that Kakashi expects to see one considering he’s a sealmaster.

Kakashi takes a final look around his apartment. He won’t miss it, because home had always been where Minato was. He turns back to Minato - his shishou, his sensei, his surrogate father and realises he’ll follow him to the ends of the world if Minato wanted him to.

He clears his throat, feeling the weight of his word at the back of his throat.

“I am.”

Minato slings his arm around his shoulders and Kakashi ignores the tremble in Minato’s arm. “Then let’s go.”

Then Kakashi’s world blurs and changes forever.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Genma is in the bar, steadily drinking himself drunk. He can feel the edges of his vision become hazy, the dull throb in his head beat louder with each cup he empties. He’s the Hokage’s bodyguard, one of the elite, he thinks and a hysterical laugh bubbles up his throat.

_What was he really doing with his life? What the FUCK was he doing?_

Genma presses his forehead onto the table and sobs. What has his village turned into? Or had they always been this way? The Hokage as a figurehead, the whole Clan Council a sham. Disgust churns in him, or perhaps that might be the eighth sake bottle talking.

Raidou sits next to him, having given up two hours ago on trying to stop him. Raidou doesn’t know yet. He doesn’t know that he’s sitting beside the next biggest traitor since Madara. And will probably never know if Genma keeps his damn mouth shut.

Can't believe he just turned around and pretended not to see Minato sealing up his belongings. He wanted to blame the man for not staying, for not digging his feet in, but could he really?

Genma had been there for both the arguments, the way the Council had decided what the Hokage would do and say disgusted him.

His stomach lurches and before he’s even turned to the side, Raidou has flickered them to the alley where he vomits.

“ _Sage_. What the fuck is going on with you, Genma?” Raidou asks, thankfully holding his hair up. As short as his hair might be, Genma isn’t looking forward to vomit coated hair tips.

Genma only smiles miserably at him. No one is going to know until a day and a half has passed. The Hokage, as powerful a position it is, is essentially only for paperwork.  

The Hokage defecting. What a joke.

Raidou lifts his arm around his shoulders and lifts Genma up. “I’ve never seen you drink this much before.”

Well, this is as much as an alibi as it is going to get, Genma thinks as he let's Raidou half carry him home. A public scene, plenty of witnesses. Good idea Genma.

He yawns then passes out of Raidou.

 

✥.✥.✥

 

The landscape blurs around him. They jump through the forests of Fire Country, across the rocks of Hot Water, through the grasslands of Kusa, until the moon sets and the sun rises, seeping the night sky with fingers of orange.

Any pursuit would be hard pressed to find them or even keep up with them. Not when Minato hiraishins them over vast stretches of land, reaching as far as his kunai and technique would allow.

Kakashi doesn’t let that lure him into complacency, making sure that their scents and track are not left behind each time.

They stop at the edge of a mountain, far enough that Kakashi doesn’t even recognise. There’s no village for kilometres around them, no scents of humans even when he pulls his mask down to scent.

“Are we stopping here?” He asks Minato. There is no building, no rundown shack that he had assumed that they might be taking up residence in. Kakashi’s not sure why he had assumed Minato would have prepared that. While it’s true that Minato had always been a preparer as opposed to Kushina who simply leaps into the fire, it was unlikely that Minato would have prepared for situations in case they needed to… _defect._

Defect.

He is a missing-nin now, they’re missing-nins. How are they—

Kakashi shoves the jumble of thoughts to the back of his mind and summons his pack; setting Bull to dig a fire pit and the rest to secure the perimeter. Minato’s clone has set up the tents as Minato paces back and forth, patting Naruto that was getting fussier by the minute. Pouring water from his canteen and adding scoops of milk formula, Kakashi carefully heated the milk bottle with his chakra, thrusting it to Minato.

“Perimeter’s secured,” Pakkun reports.

Kakashi turns to look at Minato. He looks even more exhausted than they were before they fled. The multiple hirashins would do that. There is no way he could ask Minato to set up the sensor seals.

“Set up a watch for now—” Kakashi paused, unsure if, when or how anyone would catch up with them. The Hokage defecting would be the most ridiculous thing ever. If he cared about Konoha, he might feel some sympathy for them, but he doesn’t. There’s no one else that has the power to drag Minato back, except for the Sannin. Jiraiya and Tsunade aren’t—

Orochimaru. They’ll send Orochimaru. They’ll need—

“Rest, Boss,” Pakkun tells him, breaking him out of his jumbled thoughts. “Tomorrow we can decide on other stuff.” Pakkun puts a paw on his knee.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, life and my chronic illness relapse happened. This chp sucks. I'll try to make better the next, I guess...
> 
> In regards of Rin and Obito's future. They play an important role in this fic, you'll just have to wait for it to unravel.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi~! This fic would be very, very, _very_ sporadically updated. With priority given to ESR. SO! I'll try to update it as much as I can, but you have been warned!


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